al ports on both sides of the
English Channel, so long as any ports on the French side remained in
English hands. The reader will recollect, perhaps, that while Richard
was quite a small boy, his mother was compelled to fly with him and
his little brother George to France, to escape from the enemies of the
family, at the time of his father's death, and that it was through the
Earl of Warwick's co-operation that she was enabled to accomplish this
flight. Now it was in consequence of Warwick's being at that time Lord
High Admiral of England, and his having command of Calais, and the
waters between Calais and England, that he could make arrangements to
assist Lady Cecily so effectually on that occasion.

Still, Richard, though universally applauded for his military courage
and energy, was known to all who had opportunities of becoming
personally acquainted with him to be a bad man. He was unprincipled,
hard-hearted, and reckless. This, however, did not detract from his
military fame. Indeed, depravity of private character seldom
diminishes much the applause which a nation bestows upon those who
acquire military renown in their service. It is not to be expected
that it should. Military exploits have been, in fact, generally, in
the history of the world, gigantic crimes, committed by reckless and
remorseless men for the benefit of others, who, though they would be
deterred by their scruples of conscience or their moral sensibilities
from perpetrating such deeds themselves, are ready to repay, with the
most extravagant honors and rewards, those who are ferocious and
unscrupulous enough to perpetrate them in their stead. Were it not for
some very few and rare exceptions to the general rule, which have from
time to time appeared, the history of mankind would show that, to be a
_good soldier_, it is almost absolutely essential to be a _bad man_.

The child, Prince Edward, the son of Edward the Fourth, who was born,
as is related in a preceding chapter, in the sanctuary at Westminster,
whither his mother had fled at the time when Edward was expelled from
the kingdom, was, of course, King Edward's heir. He was now less than
a year old, and, in order to place his title to the crown beyond
dispute, a solemn oath was required from all the leading nobles and
officers of Edward's government, that in case he survived his father
they would acknowledge him as king. The following is the form of the
oath which was taken:

I acknowle